


Among the Shooting Stars

by Weresilver-In-Space (JuhllyMBS)



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-08-29 13:55:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16745257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuhllyMBS/pseuds/Weresilver-In-Space
Summary: Leonard dies, but not for long. He is not the same as before, however, and he dislikes every moment of that.





	1. Day one: Frankenstein Monster

**Author's Note:**

> The story was going to be all one file, but since they are just disconnected scenes, I felt it was better to break it into chapters.

It was dark and silent. The cold was penetrating, but it was leaving his body. Leonard could hear voices in the dark, arguing and slowly becoming clearer. _Jim and Spock_ , he identified. Whatever could those two be arguing about?

He tried to move, but that's all that was, an attempt. His muscles felt heavy. He couldn't even open his eyes. He tried calling to them, and he must have made some form of sound despite not hearing his own voice. The arguing stopped instantly.

He felt warm hands on his face and neck, checking for his vital signs. Yeah, he's alive, what's the big deal? The warmth disappeared, replaced by the low humming sound he was already so familiar with aboard the Enterprise.

Leonard’s eyes snapped open, and he sat up immediately. He was in medbay, lights barely on. If it were not for the constant humming of the Enterprise’s engines, it would be completely silent. If it were not for the faint steps he could hear outside–

Why could he hear those steps? He glanced around, finally realizing he was a patient in his own medbay, with no recollection as to why he even was there. His eyes stopped at the metal cabinet. There was no light in there that could reflect a golden color in his eyes…

Leonard did not notice he was holding his breath as he walked out with hurried steps. He kept his head low, lest someone noticed the different hue of his eyes. _Why out in the tin can_ , he thought. He mentally cursed for the sake of it. He just wanted to go back to his quarters.

The tug he felt on his arm brought his attention back to the real world, and he turned around, startled, to find the ship’s first officer staring right into his eyes.

“Doctor,” he greeted. Christ, it has been years, but Leonard still had to make a conscious effort to not simply stare at the patches of differently colored skin that Spock carried. “You should not be out of medbay so shortly after your revival.”

“Let go, you green-blooded Frankenstein,” he snarled with a pull of his arm. He gave himself no time to think about what he just said, and continued walking. _Revival_ . Steps away, he could hear Spock’s breathing, inhaling to go after him. He turned around with a glare and spoke with gritted teeth, “ _Don’t._ ”


	2. Day two: The Siren from the Deep

He had to eat. Of course he had to eat, what the hell was he thinking? Leonard entered the mess hall and went straight to the replicator, trying to ignore the wave of scents his nose suddenly picked up. One advantage of supposedly coming back from the dead was that no one questioned that your first ‘public’ appearance was to eat after a day spent in quarters.

Neither Jim nor Spock were around, which he was quite thankful for. ‘ _Green-blooded Frankenstein_ ’ was a first, but he was sure Spock could handle a new insult thrown by him. Jim, on the other hand, would simply ask too many annoying questions like usual, and he was not in the mood for that.

Leonard remained in silence, focusing on the smell of the replicated food he was eating – not as good as something handmade, but good enough. The door opened and closed many times, hardly changing anything for the doctor, until the scent of seawater took over.

He glanced up, although to confirm something he already knew. Only a siren would have such a strong scent of the sea, and there was exactly one siren aboard the Enterprise. Uhura was humming to some song, careful to not accidentally charm anyone along the way. She sat down across from him with a dish of seaweed and an assortment of meat, most of which were small fish, he assumed.

“Is something wrong, Leonard?” She asked after a few minutes, with a soft voice and a smile. Damn pleasing to his ears, over the chatter in the mess hall. “You’re the one constantly nagging everybody to eat better, but you haven’t touched anything other than the chicken.”

For a moment, he stopped breathing.  _He hadn’t realized_. He sighed and continued eating, this time also the rest of the food on his plate, in silence. She had no visible reaction to his lack of a proper response, but Leonard knew she did not like it. A slight change in the smell of the sea she brought in added to his own medical knowledge was enough for him to know.

Uhura watched him carefully. She had always shown good intuition, and that very thing told her that something was off. She pondered what to say for a while, before placing a hand over the doctor’s arm. “Leonard–”

“ _No_ ,” he pulled his arm to his body as soon as he felt her hand. “I'm not doing this,” he could see the surprise in her face, as well as hear it in her heartbeat, but his mouth was faster than his brain. “There’s _nothing_ to talk about,” he snapped, “So leave me alone.”

Uhura could swear she saw a hint of gold in the doctor’s eyes as he got up and walked away, leaving an unfinished plate behind. Out of the mess hall, Leonard let out a sigh. _There it was again_. That typical McCoy irritability he knew damn well the source of. For the first time in his life, he hated being his father’s son.


	3. Day Three: The Ghost of Silent Footsteps

Spock, when he first woke up. Then Uhura on the following day, and almost Sulu and Chekov later that same day. It would have been worst on the dragon kid.

M’Benga said that he had been shot by a disruptor pistol but his body recovered far too quickly for a normal human, and yet nothing out of the ordinary showed on exams. _Hell_ , he came back from the dead, apparently, and Leonard still had no recollection of what ‘killed’ him. He only knew what brought him back.

He spent the last three days coming and going between his quarters and the mess hall, as well as medbay whenever needed. It was, most of the times, M’Benga calling him for checkups, but Leonard ended up helping in his duties more often than not. At least, that offered him some sense of normality that he was otherwise lacking at that point.

In his medbay – and that still was _his_ medbay – he felt as normal as being able to quickly diagnose someone could make him feel. His sense of smell and hearing had improved, and part of his job had been made easier thanks to that, but… He had no way of telling how things would be during a surgery. How he would feel.

His father had always told him stories about the two sides of his heritage, but the feral lack of control always stood out more than the good his relatives had done with it. Deep down, he felt that this was the real reason that Jocelyn left with Joanna. It could supposedly not manifest for generations, and has been the reason the McCoy family lasted as long as it has, but it happened to his father, and now to him. He couldn’t help but wonder if would happen to Joanna.

 _Why in the god damn ship, though?_ The question repeated itself in his mind every few minutes. The more he thought about the whole thing, the faster he could tell his heart was beating. His father, and what he went through at the end of his life. His daughter, and what she could go through later. The rest of the crew, and the threat _he_ could be to them.

He used to take pride in being the one human among the senior crewmembers, but he was growing closer to attacking one of them by the minute. He hated himself for that, he was a doctor, not… Well, he supposed he _was_  something else now.

He was tired. He refused to leave his quarters all day, but he felt tired. He let out a groan that, unbeknownst to him, turned into a soft growl midway, and quickly fell asleep.


	4. Day four, part 1: The Mound-Fairy...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to divide this one, it was getting a little too long for the pattern here.

No one had seen Leonard for the last twenty-four hours, not even in the mess hall, the one place he willingly went to in the past few days. Jim was worried, walking as quickly as he could without breaking into a sprint. His steps lightly touched the ground, but they were firm, and the markings on his neck moved around in the same rhythm as he did.

An increasingly violent behavior had been reported by other officers. Leonard was seen shouting far more often, as well as flinching at being touched and lashing out thereafter. He allowed no one into his quarters and seemed to growl at the insistence.

Jim started to feel anxious. His best friend had died and come back to life in front of his eyes, and he feared that the experience had the worst possible effects on him. That he had become someone else entirely.

God, he hadn't realized how particularly afraid he was of losing Leonard until he did for the first time. He was beginning to understand why everyone became so protective of him after the encounter with Khan, genetically enhanced blood transfusion aside.

Jim stopped in front of the door to the doctor's quarters. He spoke through the door comm, without an answer. He tried again another couple of times before deciding to override the lock. Something _was_ wrong, he could feel it. Jim made sure there was no one around before he entered. One person walking in was more than enough.

The only light came from the corridor outside and his quarters were warm, stuffed with stagnated air that blew outward as soon as the door opened, but the smell that was brought along caused Jim to freeze in his place. He took a somewhat shaky deep breath, unfortunately taking the smell of blood in as well.

 _One step at a time, James_ , he whispered to himself as he walked in. “Bones?” He called when the door closed behind him. “ _Leonard??_ ”

He turned the lights on with barely enough time to see a dark mass leaping at him. By some instinct, Jim had raised an arm to protect his neck, but he could not maintain balance.

He hit his back against the floor with a loud thud. He kept his arm raised and used the other hand to try and shove the animal on top of him away, but that had little success. The cold tingle of the razor-sharp fangs in his arms caused the muscles to contract, adding to that goddamn pain.

“ _God dammit!_ ” he shouted. The wolf-like animal had a strong lock on his arm and a crushing weight over him, but at that moment, his sole concern was the doctor he came to check on. “ _Bones!_ ”

The beast tugged his arm, trying to pull him. He continued calling for Leonard but at no moment he got some form of reply. Jim held onto the beast's fur and onto the idea of keeping his arm where it belonged for as long as he could.

He looked around, in hopes of finding something that could help him get rid of the animal, but the room was too thrashed. _Signs of struggle_. _Leonard fought but_ – Dammit, Jim was not the pessimist, but there _was_ blood and no Leonard in sight.

“ _Shit_ ,” he spoke under his breath as if it would understand what he was saying. “Where the hell did you come from?!”

His own little struggle continued for some minutes. He kicked and punched the beast, but all it did was loosen the bite, so it could press once again against his arm in a slightly different position, reigniting the pain over and over again.

Jim was on the edge of panic, and his markings slowly came up to his face. _How did this thing get on the ship? Where the hell was Bones hiding? Or where, god forbid, were his remains?_ Not knowing was eating him up as much as this oversized wolf seemed to wish to do.

 _One last desperate kick._ It took him all his strength to free himself with a kick to the animal’s chest. Jim backed away as quickly as he could once the creature fell back on the opposite end of the room. Both breathed heavily, but Jim still managed to find the strength to ask one more question.

“Leonard, just where _the hell_ are you?!” Jim looked around frantically before the creature's growl and glowing golden eyes drew his attention to it once more. “What the hell did you to my doctor?!”

 _My doctor._ The epitome of ‘emotional’. All he needed.


	5. Day four, part 2: ... and The Wolf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Midly painful transformation ahead, folks.

_My doctor._ The epitome of ‘emotional’. All he needed.

The wolf had gotten up, its growl barely audible. Until it stopped. The creature looked around the room it was in, as if it had just woken up. Jim could believe it, as he watched the glow die down and the golden color be replaced by a green hue he was quite familiar with.

“Bones?” He called in a much softer voice. The wolf flinched and turned its full attention to his bitten arm. That was Leonard, alright.

He had finally come to his senses, and he was nowhere near a human shape. Great. His quarters were a complete mess, created by himself. He passed out due to the pain of the first transformation, or so he thought, but Jim was right there, with an arm basically chewed up, staring at him while his bizarre birthmarks went back to their proper places.

Leonard wanted to apologize, to just say something, but all sounds he tried to make came out as pitiful barks and whimpers. His frantic breathing produced more sound than his current vocal cords.

“Bones, calm down.” Jim tried to approach, but Leonard scampered off further into the corner without taking his eyes off of his wounded arm. “Don't worry about the arm, we can fix it later…”

 _We_. Why the hell did Jim think he could still be a doctor when there was a chance of– His thoughts were interrupted by Jim crouching in front of him, turning his wolf head to face him while holding it by the sides. _God dammit, man._  He looked right into Leonard's eyes, and those fairy blue eyes of his never failed to make him uncomfortable.

“ _Breathe._ ”

Without much of a choice, Leonard took a series of deep breaths. At first, they were all too shaky to be truly helpful. They gained consistency, but soon a twinge of pain ran through his body and his breathing became erratic once more.

It started from his hands and feet and quickly moved to the rest of his body. The skin accommodated the fur by breaking and healing itself over it, while his bones snapped back into their original place with considerably loud cracks. Leonard could only compare the sensation he felt to having broken bones hastily put back together by someone who didn't really know how to do it.

He sat up, covered in blood – mostly his own dry blood, with the exception of Jim's on his face. Good god, he felt cold. His body was sore all over. His heartbeat matched his frantic breathing in an attempt to generate enough warmth.

“You know,” Jim threw a bed sheet over him as he sat down by his side, carrying that stupid smirk he always had, “Putting some clothes on would help with the shivering.”

 _Shit. Right._ He couldn’t help but sigh. “I’ll try to remember that next time,” his voice was hoarse, but at least he managed to speak. With the way the captain was looking at him, he guessed he was looking quite pathetic. Of course, _he had his blood on his face._ “Jim, I –”

“You should clean up, walk around for a bit.” Leonard shifted uneasily, pulling his legs closer to his chest. “C’mon, don’t be a baby, I don’t want to order you to do it.”

He couldn’t help but smile when the doctor turned to him with a glare, followed by a defeated sigh. Last time Jim had seen him looking this tired was in that shuttle to San Francisco, when they first met years ago.

Leonard got up, mumbling something Jim couldn’t understand and walking slowly to a hopefully intact part of his quarters for a shower. That was that, Jim mused, taking his hand to the wounded arm. _Damn_ , that was one painful bite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be entirely honest, I considered going further into the transformation back to human shape, but decided not to. Hope it was enjoyable regardless! We are approaching the end now.


	6. Crew, pack, family

“You still haven’t told me what it’s like to meditate with Spock,” Jim pondered, standing on the other side of the medical bed.

“And I don’t have any intention to,” the doctor glanced at him and tapped the bed. “Now come on, fairy boy, you’ve avoided this for one full week.”

In spite of the captain’s complaints, Leonard finally had Jim for the routine physical exam he tried so hard to avoid. About a month had passed since that… Disruptor incident, and he came to learn that the secret to it all lied in emotional stability. If it took his death for him to lose it in the first place, Leonard was confident it wouldn’t happen again anytime soon, but that green-blooded frankenstein insisted on being some sort of ‘ _emotional coach_ ’.

Other than the few survey missions here and there, it had been a quiet month. Jim had started talking about a five-year exploratory mission, and for a moment, Leonard considered leaving while he could.

He went back to having his meals in the usual hours and to wasting free time on the bridge. He resumed his duties as chief medical officer by the second week, and there were no questions about what had happened.

“ _You're still the same grumpy Leonard McCoy_ , _no matter how human or not you are now,_ ” Nyota constantly reminded him, “ _And we all know that._ ”

Save for some new scare tactics that Jim thought unfit for a doctor – but saved his life in away missions regardless – Leonard truly hadn't changed. He still hated space and everything that it entailed, but he was willing to swallow the aviophobia for now.

There was no way he could leave, at least not willingly. Much like the Enterprise itself was Jim and Scotty's little metal mound, the tin can felt like home for the doctor. Besides, he preferred not to think of what this crew would do with just Jim and Spock.

He just couldn’t admit, not even to himself, that  _he_ wouldn’t know what to do if he weren’t a part of this. Maybe it was merely the wolf part of him talking, maybe it was not, but five years seemed to be enough time to consider some of those idiots as family. His little pack of people he could trust. What were five more years to that?

“There.” He finished taking some notes on a PADD and turned off the vitals monitor. “Was it that hard?”

Jim seemed out of breath as he got up and turned a quick glare toward the doctor. “You’re," he let out a sigh, “You’re gonna kill me one day, Bones.”

“ _Kill you?_ ” He looked at Jim, clearly faking surprise at his comment. “You’re talking to the guy that saved your ass last week.”

“Yeah, I know.” Jim did not roll his eyes, but Leonard could almost feel his annoyance. “Doesn’t change the fact it was uncalled for.”

“Say that to the next person that tries to stab anyone from this ship.” Leonard started gently pushing Jim, by his shoulders, out of medbay. “Now, your shift is over and you’re about to get yourself overworked. Go to your quarters –” Jim seemed ready to protest, but Leonard’s voice overtook his. “– Doctor’s order.”

Jim thankfully knew better than to argue with that. Leonard was the last to leave medbay that evening, finishing his reports on everyone’s physical exams. Yeah, he knew where he wanted to be – or at least who he wanted to have around – and that was exactly it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tadah! Hope it was as enjoyable to read as it was for me to write it :D  
> It was a total of three days writing, six days posting. Most of this was done in one day, though...


End file.
